All about: Diversity - Dance Saturday

Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post, 

In today's all about:_____ post, I'll be talking about the incredibly well-known British street dance group, Diversity! I have talked about this group a little bit before but here I'll be talking about their full story and how they changed dance so if that is something you want to see, then please keep on reading.

Originally known as Swift Moves, Diversity is a dance group that was formed in 2007 and it includes four sets of siblings and eight other members from London and Essex. They rose to fame through their Britain's Got Talent audition in 2009, where they impressed the judges with an original and slightly comedic, street dance number. Although the number was really impressive and included dare-devil tricks and excellent choreography for the time, all the members had very little formal dance training and just enjoyed practicing dance in their spare time. The group's founder, Ashley Banjo, was even in the middle of completing a degree in physics when he auditioned for BGT. Other members were also bathroom installers, telecom engineers and even students at school, who were not well-known in the dance industry. 

BritainsGotTalentHD

However, despite their humble beginnings, Diversity managed to win the third series of Britain's Got Talent and beat opera singer, Susan Boyle, in the live final. These once young and inexperienced dancers, had become one of the most popular street dance groups in Britain. Diversity had now become a dancing sensation, continuously touring the world showcasing their amazing performances and teaching master-classes to the younger generation. Many fans had grown up watching them and they had seen them blossom into the amazing dancers that they are now.

One member who was very young when he first joined Diversity was Perri Kiely, who at 13 years old, became a very talented dancer and very recognisable for his frizzy hair!😂 However, he was also later cast as a member of Aaron's Crew in the film Street Dance and he also became the runner-up of the twelfth series of Dancing on Ice. Ashley's brother, Jordan Banjo, who is another well-known member of the group, also went onto co-host the first series of The Greatest Dancer, alongside Alesha Dixon. The group would also later perform a high-energy routine on series 2 of the show that would also showcase the judges Matthew Morrison, Oti Mabuse, Todrick Hall, and Cheryll Tweedy as well as the presenters Alesha Dixon and Jordan Banjo. Although I'm not the biggest fan of The Greatest Dancer, when I watched the clip of this dance I thought it was amazing!

BBC

What I like the most about Diversity is the ability that they have to be themselves in their dancing. Every time that you watch any of their performances you immediately feel in tune with their dancing because there is nothing pretentious or overbearing in their choreography. They dance because they enjoy it and they love embracing their unique style. That's probably why so many other dance groups tend to copy their style because it was so different and iconic. When Diversity first became known, no one ever danced like them which is probably why they did end up winning Britain's Got Talent because they weren't dancing like everybody else and they were just being themselves. 

I also like how they built themselves up. They gained their recognisability because they worked hard to get to where they are. This is probably why many members of the group had other aspirations as well because whilst they were working hard on their dancing, they also enjoyed doing other things which is what I think makes them so genuine.

I think that Diversity have changed the way we look at dance because they inspire other people, of all ages and abilities, to dance. They also inspire people to express their personality in their dancing and they inspire others with their unique choreography. I think that is why so many people like watching their performances!

Members:

Ashley Banjo

Jordan Banjo

Sam Craske

Mitchel Craske

Perri Kiely

Starr Kiely

Jordan Samuel

Shante Samuel

Warren Russell

Terry Smith

Nathan Ramsey

Theo Mckenzie-Hayton

Adam McKop

Kelvin Clark

Georgia Lewis

Morgan Plom

(As well as former member, Robert Anker, who unfortunately died in a car crash in 2017)

Have you ever heard of Diversity? Do you like the street dance style? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you! 

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See you next time,

Bye,

XOX, Juliette

P.S. Next week I'll be taking a short break from this series and upload a different post for some variation. It will be a stretching tips post so I do hope you'll enjoy it too. Don't worry, the next All about:_____ post will come back shortly in the following week!

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